The Border Regions
The borders between the three countries have their own unique climates and collections of towns and cities. The Kanareh is the Safta/Everea border. The Borderline is the Everea/Pakerion border. The Saghar is the Safta/Pakerion border. Mianeh A large city located at the intersection of the three countries. It's considered its own sovereign territory, with no one country laying claim to it. It wasn't always this way, and older residents may reminisce about the times King Aerveas tried to claim taxes from them and had his berserkers run out of town by the army. Mianeh is a hub of commerce with a very effective guard force keeping the peace in the city. The guard is made up of people of all classes, and all classes are welcome here. Anybody who starts trouble is dealt with swiftly. New York City is merged with Mianeh as of June 16th. The Kanareh The Kanareh, spanning the border of Safta and Everea, is often talked of as the "safest" border area in the world. What this really means is that it is the most boring, lacking any interesting architecture, interesting land, or even interesting people. Few outlaws are interested, and the Evereans who'd balk at atheism want nothing to do with living in Safta full-time. The Kanareh on the Saftan side holds little to none of the Everean, outside of the occasional not-awesome deer. The Evereans on this side of the border tend to be homely, patient, and irreligious. They're often trying to learn magic, but because they're typically Clerics or Paladins, they've yet to acquire the adequate skill to learn the upper-tier magic used along the border. At the transition from Everea into the Kanareh, the wild flora becomes increasingly tamed until it disappears from cityscapes altogether. The cobblestone paths remain, their pattern meticulously laid out in the most efficient roadway possible. The Tudor architecture is gone, in favour of an incredibly modern architecture featuring a mix of heavy, dark woods and metals. The metals, they say, are meant to deflect magic, and this is a magic region, even in Everea. The mention of Xumurdad will be mixed between individuals here. Evereans who are stationed here are often at odds with the seeming "lawlessness" of the educational, magic oriented milieu, and it's more often than not that a report of a flaming elk running into Everea proper reaches Bastan. Another river runs by this border, but unlike those near Pakerion, the homes on the river bed are extremely expensive, as they are designed to harness water elementals for the owner. Headcanon Omghan (Hibi) A city in the Kanareh located near a lovely swamp lake locally famed for its lack of infestation by monsters. It has a small-town feeling of pride in its own isolation and dullness (although it's not actually isolated, it's just not interesting enough to draw many visitors). The buildings all look kind of the same-ish. Nova Kylethe lives here and somehow nobody has noticed how weird he is yet. The Borderline The border between Everea and Pakerion, the Borderline is known to be a fairly dangerous place, caught right in the center of the two nations' feuding. As it shifts from Everea into Pakerion, the Borderline begins to do two things: first, it begins to grow into a tangled mess of green, thorns, flora and fauna of the intense variety. Second, it begins to be populated by Druids and Berserkers, crossing the lines regularly for either mercenary work or quests. A small settlement called Bordertown has been established here but it can't decide whether it's Everea or Pakerion, what with ladders leading to deciduous treetops, vines crossing over tudor roofs and cobblestone roads dissolving into muddy, debris strewn pathways. On the Everea side, one of the rivers crosses directly by the border, and there is a town here called Roodjaleh that, rather than just building on the other side of the river, decided to put half the town on rafts instead. These homes are especially cheap as they regularly fall into the river. The Pakerion side of the Borderline is lawlessness. You won't catch an Everean alive in this side of town, but you might find them dead. Assassins and Berserkers bring their catches over the country line to murder them here to avoid the Everean law, and you thought Enghelab was terrifying? Here, the Tudor architecture's deterioration leads to several empty and abandoned buildings where a fire could start and no one would be the wiser. There are no traditional merchants, only NPC Rogues reselling wares from Alchemists or from expeditions gone awry at awful mark-ups. Headcanon Ruins of Kirkfinn (Yoiko) Legend has it Kirkfinn was once a prosperous kingdom, but all that's left of it is the ruins of the castle. Anyone living at the castle at the time of its falling has been cursed to roam as ghosts, including the soldiers and guards who still tirelessly defend the city against trespassing adventurers, and the tortured spirits of the dungeon that lash out at anything that moves. Some of the rooms within the castle are quieter with less violent ghosts or no ghosts at all. There is very little of value left behind in the cursed castle, as most of it has already been looted. The Saghar The Saghar spans the border between Safta and Pakerion. The rolling foothills of the Saftan mountains end in the Pakerion side of the Saghar, where a tamer Pakerion is seen. The influence of Saftan logic has spread over Pakerionians here, and those who are "cold calculating killers" or just "mild-tempered Rogues" prefer the no-nonsense, manicured approach of the Saghar. As the Saghar crosses the low-point of the Saftan mountains, it is often described as "one trip to a broken collar bone," as the steep foothills leading into Pakerion and the rubble left behind can be treacherous for swift-moving travelers. Architecture looks strikingly like Saftan architecture, but the roads are no longer paved, as a compromise to the largely barefoot Berserkers. The Saghar on the Saftan side is under constant construction. Warning signs are posted everywhere as irritated Saghar mages fight the growth of the wild jungle and the damage that the Berserkers often do to Safta. It is a point of pride (and sometimes initiation) for young Berserkers to destroy something on the Saftan side, and so often there is rubble, a broken window, a branch through a door... etc. Headcanon -